The Maryland Casualty Producer License
Maryland issues casualty as a real standalone line of authority, with its own paper: Casualty Producer, code 2026, series 20-26. It is not a subset booking of the combined exam - the Prometric bulletin's Types of Licenses table lists all seven Maryland papers as separately bookable, each with its own code and its own $62 fee.
Entry has three steps and no coursework. Be 18 (Ins. § 10-104), pass the casualty exam, then apply and pay $54. Maryland repealed pre-licensing education and the minimum-experience requirement effective October 1, 2024 (HB 265 / SB 336, MIA Bulletin 24-19), and the MIA now tells candidates outright that they "may find their own insurance exam preparation courses or they may order their own study materials." The exam requirement itself survived the repeal.
The order matters: exam first, then application. The bulletin says to submit the application once you have passed, and NIPR enforces it operationally - it verifies exams before allowing an application through, so a pre-exam filing simply will not go. The full application walkthrough lives in the [Life guide](/insurance/maryland/life-only/licensing-guide), which owns that module.
What the casualty authority actually buys you in Maryland is the liability book: the compulsory private passenger auto package under Transportation Article § 17-103(b) and Insurance Article Title 19 Subtitle 5, workers' compensation written under the Labor and Employment Article, general liability, and the excess and umbrella layers above them. Those four bodies of law sit in three different Maryland articles, which is why the state section of this exam reads less like a single statute and more like a tour.
And it is the licence surplus lines sits on. Ins. § 3-306 puts a licensed surplus lines broker in the chain for any non-admitted placement, on top of property and casualty authority. That module is below, and it is this guide's deep dive.
Booking the Casualty Paper - and the Two Alternatives
Casualty Producer, code 2026 (series 20-26): 90 items in 1 hour 45 minutes, $62. The content outline breaks that into 80 scored plus 10 unscored. At 105 minutes for 90 items you have roughly 70 seconds an item, which is comfortable if you are not re-reading stems.
The combined alternative is Property and Casualty Producer - Combo, code 2032 (series 20-32): 130 items in 2 hours 30 minutes, also $62. Note what that means: Maryland charges the same $62 for the combined paper as for the single line, so two standalone papers cost $124 against $62 combined. If there is any prospect of writing property, the combined paper is the cheaper route to both lines - and it is the paper that most obviously satisfies the "property and casualty authority" language in the surplus lines prerequisite below.
Spanish-language versions exist for every Maryland producer line, in the code range 2043-2053 and at the same $62. The Casualty paper is 2046, Productor de Siniestros.
Passing is 70%, and in Maryland that is a raw percentage. The Maryland Insurance Exam FAQ says: "To achieve a passing score on the exam, you must receive a 70% or higher." There is no scaled score here and no conversion table - which also means the diagnostic language other states' handbooks use about neither the number nor the percentage of questions being reported does not appear in Maryland's bulletin. What is genuinely unstated is which denominator the 70% runs against, the 80 scored items or all 90; no Maryland source says, so do not assume.
Fail and you wait 4 days, then pay the full $62 again. That 4-day restriction is the only limit the bulletin publishes - it does not state an attempt cap, so do not read one in either direction.
You can sit this exam remotely. The bulletin says you may test "at any Prometric test center in The United States or in a remotely proctored location," and Prometric's Maryland exam page confirms remote proctoring is available - which runs against the direction several other states' vendors have gone. The remote-testing walkthrough is in the [Health guide](/insurance/maryland/health-only/licensing-guide); test centres are surfaced dynamically at booking and are covered in the [Property guide](/insurance/maryland/property-only/licensing-guide); check-in, ID and prohibited items are in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/maryland/life-and-health/licensing-guide); and score reporting and retake strategy are in the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/maryland/personal-lines/licensing-guide).
Most Tested Topics on the Maryland Casualty Exam
Maryland's casualty content splits cleanly in two: the compulsory auto package in Insurance Article Title 19 Subtitle 5 plus the Transportation Article, and workers' compensation in the Labor and Employment Article. Both are heavy on exact numbers, and both punish a candidate who learned the concept from a national outline and assumed the figure travels. Every row below is verified to the section named in the third column.
| Concept | What Maryland does | Where it's written |
|---|---|---|
| Compulsory auto limits, 30/60/15 | Bodily injury or death up to $30,000 for any one person and $60,000 for any two or more, plus $15,000 for the property of others - each "in addition to interest and costs." The same subsection then pulls the § 19-505 PIP benefits and the § 19-509 / § 19-509.1 coverages into the compulsory package by cross-reference | Transp. § 17-103(b)(1)-(4) |
| PIP benefit, the Maryland amounts | Minimum benefits "shall include up to $2,500" and the income limb pays 85% of income lost within 3 years after the accident by someone who was earning or producing income when it happened. The medical and essential-services limbs carry the same 3-year incurral window | Ins. § 19-505(b)(2)(i)-(iii) |
| PIP exclusion, motorcycles and mopeds | For a motorcycle, moped or motor scooter the insurer may exclude the economic-loss benefits entirely, or offer them with deductibles, options or specific exclusions | Ins. § 19-505(c)(2) |
| PIP waiver, the § 19-506 route | Only the first named insured may waive. The waiver binds each named insured, each listed driver, and every family member of the first named insured residing in the household who is at least 16 years old - so it does not bind a household family member under 16. The form explains the coverage in 10 point boldface type | Ins. § 19-506 |
| PIP rejection, the § 19-506.1 route | A separate, much narrower mechanism. Available only where the policy is at the § 17-103(b) minimum limits AND either it is a MAIF policy and the applicant has not been continuously insured with MAIF for at least 1 year, or another insurer's policy where the applicant's prior policy was cancelled before its term ended. The form requires a three-way written election - obtain, waive, or reject - also in 10 point boldface type | Ins. § 19-506.1 |
| Enhanced underinsured motorist, the waiver form | For policies issued on or after 1 July 2024 the insurer must PROVIDE EUIM unless the first named insured signs an affirmative written waiver, after written notice of the coverage's "nature, extent, benefit, and cost." The waiver form must explain the declined coverage in at least 14 point boldface type and say the insurer may not refuse to underwrite for declining to waive. A second version of the section, effective 30 June 2029, converts this to offer-and-elect | Ins. § 19-509.1 |
| Uninsured motorist, arbitration clauses | The section prohibits a policy provision requiring a UM dispute between the insured and the insurer "to be submitted to binding arbitration." Its "uninsured motor vehicle" definition also reaches vehicles whose limits are below the coverage provided or have been reduced below the required amounts by prior claim payments | Ins. § 19-509 |
| PIP payment clock and overdue interest | Benefits are paid periodically as claims arise and within 30 days after the insurer receives satisfactory proof of claim; overdue payments "shall bear simple interest at the rate of 1.5% per month" | Ins. § 19-508(a)(1), (c) |
| PIP's carve-out from the 15-working-day standard | The regulation defining "unreasonable delay" - the 15 working day payment standard for property and casualty claims - expressly excludes § 19-505 PIP claims, and applies only where "there is no significant dispute as to coverage, liability, and amount of damages" | COMAR 31.15.07.02B(12) |
| MAIF eligibility, the three routes in | A good-faith attempt rejected or refused by at least TWO Association members for a reason other than nonpayment; or a cancellation or nonrenewal by an Association member for a reason other than nonpayment; or having been uninsured for a continuous period of 12 months or more, verified by a commercial third-party database or a State agency | Ins. § 20-502(a)(3)(i)-(iii) |
| MAIF, the unqualified applicant | "If a prospective insured fails to qualify under this section, any policy issued is VOID and a commission may not be paid by the Fund to a fund producer." Recoupment follows only after the person is referred to the Insurance Fraud Division | Ins. § 20-502(e)(1)-(2) |
| Contributory negligence, third-party liability claims | A claimant whose own negligence contributed to the injury, even slightly, recovers nothing - Maryland is one of the few jurisdictions retaining the rule | Coleman v. Soccer Ass'n of Columbia, 432 Md. 679 (2013) |
| Workers' compensation waiting period | 3 calendar days where the temporary total disability lasts 14 days or less, and if the employee was not paid for the day of injury the Commission counts that day as one of the 3. Compensation runs from the day of disability only where the disability lasts MORE than 14 days | Lab. & Empl. § 9-620(a), (b), (c) |
| Temporary total disability rate | Two-thirds of the covered employee's average weekly wage, but not exceeding the State average weekly wage and not less than $50; where the employee's own weekly wage is under $50, compensation equals that wage | Lab. & Empl. § 9-621(a)(1)-(2) |
| Temporary partial disability rate | 50% of the difference between the average weekly wage and the wage-earning capacity in the same or other employment, capped at 50% of the State average weekly wage | Lab. & Empl. § 9-615 |
| Workers' compensation claim deadlines | Notice to the employer within 10 days of the injury (30 days for a death), a claim filed within 60 days of the accidental injury, and an absolute bar at 2 years | Lab. & Empl. §§ 9-704, 9-709 |
| Public safety employee minimums | A separate tiered floor by date of the covered event - one-third of the average weekly wage not exceeding $80 for events on or after 1/1/1988, then $82.50, $94.20 and $114 at later dates, and from 2009 as percentages of the State average weekly wage: 14.3%, then 15.4%, then 16.7% on or after 1/1/2011 | Lab. & Empl. § 9-628 |
Start with the two boldface point sizes, because they are easy marks and easy to reverse. The PIP waiver form under § 19-506 and the PIP rejection form under § 19-506.1 both print at 10 point boldface. The enhanced underinsured motorist waiver form under § 19-509.1 prints at at least 14 point boldface. Same statutory subtitle, same idea - a consumer signing away a coverage the state would otherwise force on them - and two different typographic thresholds. If you remember only the direction, remember that the newer coverage got the bigger type.
Then learn that waiver and rejection are not synonyms. National material tends to teach a single PIP opt-out, and Maryland has two mechanisms that do not substitute for each other. The waiver is the general route: first named insured only, and it reaches down through the policy to bind listed drivers and household family members aged 16 or over - a Maryland age threshold that means a 15-year-old in the household is not bound by it. The rejection is gated: minimum limits only, and only for a MAIF applicant short of a year's continuous MAIF coverage or an applicant whose prior policy was cancelled mid-term. And the rejection form is a three-way election - obtain, waive, or reject - not the binary a national outline would lead you to expect.
On EUIM, get the verb right and stop there. For policies issued on or after 1 July 2024 the insurer must provide the coverage; it is the default, not an option to take up, and it replaces standard uninsured motorist coverage where it applies. A second version of § 19-509.1 sits in the Code with an effective date of 30 June 2029 and converts the model to offer-and-elect, so material written from the 2029 text is wrong today and today's answer will be wrong then. What the Maryland sources used for this guide do not establish is whether Maryland's EUIM pays in addition to the tortfeasor's liability payment rather than being reduced by it. Several states' material teaches an additive model. Do not import it - the point is unresolved here, and an exam answer that turns on it is not one you can reason to from the statute text available.
On the workers' compensation side, the traps are a boundary and a citation habit. The waiting period is 3 calendar days, and retroactivity turns on the disability lasting more than 14 days - so a disability of exactly 14 days does not trigger payment from the day of disability. Meanwhile the four numbers most likely to be tested live in four different sections: TPD at § 9-615, the waiting period at § 9-620, the TTD rate, cap and $50 floor at § 9-621, and the public safety minimums at § 9-628. If a study aid cites one section for all of them, it is guessing. And note that Maryland's coverage obligation attaches with the first covered employee - § 9-402 sets no numeric employee minimum - with three compliance routes: an authorized carrier (Chesapeake Employers' Insurance among them), individual self-insurance, or an approved self-insurance group, all administered by the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission.
Two adjacent bodies of law are deliberately not in this table. Private passenger auto cancellation, nonrenewal and the premium-increase notice - § 27-613's certified-mail rule, the 45-day notice, the 30-day protest, and the 15% threshold that governs hearing and stay rights under § 27-614 - are owned by the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/maryland/personal-lines/licensing-guide). And the guaranty treatment of a casualty claim, including the fact that workers' compensation covered claims are paid in full with no cap under Ins. § 9-306(a)(3), is owned by the [P&C guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide). Both are worth reading before test day; neither is duplicated here.
Maryland Surplus Lines - the Licence, the $200, and the Three Declinations
Surplus lines is the natural next credential from a casualty authority, because the risks that fall out of the admitted market are overwhelmingly the risks a casualty producer handles: the hard-to-place liability account, the excess layer nobody standard will sit above, the class an underwriting guideline quietly stopped writing. Maryland treats it as a separate licence with its own fee, not as an endorsement you get for free once you hold property and casualty authority.
The prerequisite, and the honest version of it. Ins. § 3-306 puts a licensed surplus lines broker in the chain for the placement, in addition to holding property and casualty authority. Read that carefully, because it is two requirements rather than one: the underlying producer licence, and the surplus lines credential on top of it. What the Maryland material used for this guide does not settle is whether a casualty-only licence satisfies the "property and casualty authority" half of it, or whether the state expects both lines. The safest read for anyone planning this route is that the combined Property and Casualty paper (code 2032) removes the question entirely - and since Maryland charges the same $62 for the combined paper as for the single line, that is a cheap way to remove it. If you have already passed the casualty paper alone, ask the MIA's Producer Licensing Unit before you file rather than after.
The money: $200, or $100 in one specific circumstance. The MIA fee schedule prices the surplus lines licence at $200, reduced to $100 where the filing falls within 1 year of the producer licence expiry. The schedule states the reduced figure without explaining the mechanism, so take it literally: the timing of your filing relative to your own producer licence's expiration date is what moves the number. Because Maryland individual licences expire on the last day of your birth month on a two-year cycle, that condition is one you can actually plan around - you know your own expiry date the day the licence issues.
For scale, against Maryland's other licence fees: the producer licence itself is $54, a Public Adjuster is $50, an Insurance Adviser is $200, a Viatical Settlement Broker is $250, and a Temporary Producer License due to death or disability is $27 and Maryland residents only. At $200 the surplus lines licence costs almost four times the producer licence it sits on top of, which is worth knowing before you treat it as an incidental add-on.
The diligent effort, and the number that makes it a Maryland answer. Before a risk goes to a non-admitted insurer, Maryland requires a search of the admitted market first. The requirement is deemed met on declinations from THREE authorized insurers, and those declinations are documented in the affidavit required by § 3-307. The governing sections are §§ 3-306, 3-306.1 and 3-307 together - the placement rule, the diligent-effort rule, and the affidavit that proves you followed them.
Three is the count; the affidavit is the artifact. Both halves get tested, and in practice the second half is the one that bites. A declination you remember is not a declination you can swear to. Record each one as you get it - which authorized insurer, when, and that it declined - because the § 3-307 affidavit is the document the file will be judged on, and reconstructing it months later from memory is how a clean placement becomes a finding.
How the sequence actually runs from where you are now. Hold the resident producer licence with the relevant authority (be 18 under Ins. § 10-104, pass the paper, file the $54 application through NIPR). Add the surplus lines licence and its $200 through the MIA; the fee schedule at insurance.maryland.gov is where that figure is published, and paper filings go to the Maryland Insurance Administration, ATTN: Producer Licensing Unit, 200 St. Paul Place, Suite 2700, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. Then, per risk: search the admitted market, collect and document the three declinations, execute the § 3-307 affidavit, and place through the licensed surplus lines broker § 3-306 requires.
What this guide deliberately does not tell you, and why. The Maryland sources compiled for this build establish the licence fee, the reduced fee, the broker requirement and the three-declination diligent-effort standard with its affidavit. They do not establish a surplus lines premium tax rate, the existence or role of a stamping office, any filing or remittance deadline, an export list or exempt-commercial-purchaser threshold, or a list of risks excused from the diligent-effort search. Those facts are not located in the MIA fee schedule or in the §§ 3-306 / 3-306.1 / 3-307 material reviewed here - which is a statement about this guide's evidence, not a claim that Maryland lacks them. If your exam outline raises one of them, take the number from the statute itself rather than from a national summary, and treat any figure a prep course quotes without a Maryland section number as unverified.
What It Costs
Two payments to get licensed and nothing else: $62 to Prometric for the casualty paper and $54 to the MIA through NIPR. No course fee since the October 1, 2024 repeal, and no published fingerprint fee.
One caution on the $54. Maryland's fee table carries a single "Producer" row with no per-line multiplier, which reads as one fee per application rather than one per line of authority - but no Maryland source actually says so. If you are budgeting for two lines, confirm with the MIA rather than assuming the structure of the table answers the question.
Adding a line later is cheaper than it looks. If you already hold an active Maryland producer licence, you pass the new line's exam and the MIA takes 2 to 3 business days to process the exam results onto the existing licence. You do not file a fresh producer application for the line itself.
Renewal is $69 - a $54 renewal fee plus a $15 fraud prevention fee - and a late renewal adds a $100 late/reinstatement fee. The renewal machinery is owned by the [P&C guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
Veterans should check the GI Bill line before paying. The bulletin states that "Veterans who sit for certain Maryland insurance examinations can be reimbursed up to $2,000 for each exam under the GI Bill," and that dependents of disabled veterans may also qualify.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18 (Ins. § 10-104), the casualty exam passed, the $54 application filed, and the Uniform Application's background questions answered. There is no coursework requirement and no published fingerprint step.
On background disclosure, Maryland publishes a rule rather than a process. The bulletin's only background language is: "If you answer 'Yes' to a background question on the application, submit your written statement accompanied by corresponding court documents." That is the whole of it - court documents, not summaries or printouts.
On fingerprinting, be careful how you read the silence. Six primary sources - the 12-page Prometric bulletin read end to end, the MIA Producer FAQ, the MIA producer licensing page, the MIA fee schedule (which itemises every other fee and carries no fingerprint line), NIPR's Maryland page and NAIC's Maryland paper-licensing page - do not publish a fingerprint step for a resident producer applicant. None of them affirmatively says Maryland has none. Treat it as unpublished rather than abolished, and do not confuse it with the Maryland MLO fingerprint process at dllr.state.md.us, which is a different regulator and reaches Insurance Producer-MLOs only.
A licence and an appointment are two different things. Ins. § 10-103(c) requires both before you act as a producer, and § 10-103(d)(1) is blunt about the second: "an insurance producer may not sell, solicit, or negotiate any insurance on behalf of an insurer for which the insurance producer does not have an appointment." The insurer enters you on its register within 30 days of appointing you (§ 10-118(b)(2)) - but the prohibition operates on you.
Moving in or out of Maryland has a 90-day trap in it, and the direction you are moving changes which portal you must not use. That whole module - the status-change route, the paper-only application, and the MIA's explicit warning about filing on NIPR - is owned by the [P&C guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide). Designation-based exemptions and the live exam waivers are in the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/maryland/life-and-health/licensing-guide).
Two things Maryland does not publish, and both matter to a casualty candidate planning a timeline: how long a passing score stays valid, and whether any deadline runs between passing and applying. The bulletin was checked twice with different prompts and states neither. Apply promptly and the question never arises.
Keeping the Casualty License
Important CE details: 24 hours every two years, 3 of them ethics, on a cycle keyed to your birth month, with the statutory completion deadline set at 15 days before expiration by Ins. § 10-116(a)(2). Two smaller schedules sit alongside it: a title-only licensee owes 16 hours, being 13 title plus 3 ethics, and a funeral director who holds the life line owes 16, being 13 life-health plus 3 ethics. Two legacy exemptions also survive but are closed to new qualifiers - producers aged 70 or over as of April 30, 2013, and producers who as of October 1, 2008 had held licences 25 or more consecutive years, who owe 8 hours a period instead of 24.
Two-year term, ending the last day of your birth month. That is statutory, not administrative practice: Ins. § 10-115(d) says "A license renewed under this section shall have an expiration date that is the last day of the month in which the holder of the license was born," and § 10-115(a)(2) terminates your appointments when the licence expires. Business entities run two years from the date of issuance instead - a corporation has no birth month, and § 10-115 has no business-entity provision, so the MIA supplies that by published practice.
24 hours per cycle, 3 of them ethics. Carry-over is not allowed, and a duplicate course does not count twice within the same renewal period nor within 6 months of itself.
Finish 15 days out, not 30 - but plan for 30. Ins. § 10-116(a)(2) is the statutory deadline: "An insurance producer shall complete the continuing education required under paragraph (1) of this subsection not later than 15 days before the expiration date of the insurance producer's license." The MIA separately recommends completing CE 30 days out "to allow ample processing time." Both numbers are real and they answer different questions - 15 is the law, 30 is the advice, and with providers allowed up to 10 days to report a completion the advice is not decoration.
Two product gates sit on the property-casualty side of the CE table. Both are written against a property and casualty licence rather than a casualty-only one, and both follow what you actually sell - the MIA heads the block "Additional requirements for Producers who also sell:". Flood is "2 hours in course designated Flood as part of P/C hours." Bail bonds is the Maryland-specific one you would not predict from another state: "Effective October 1, 2017 each Insurance Producer who possesses a license to sell property and casualty insurance and who sells, solicits, or negotiates bail bonds shall receive four hours continuing education that directly relates to bail bonds." Both count as part of the 24 rather than on top of it. Whether they attach to a casualty-only licensee is not something the MIA's table resolves, so ask before you assume you are outside them.
You meet Prometric twice. It is the MIA's exam vendor and also "the Maryland Insurance Administration's vendor for continuing education services" (CE line 1-800-324-4592), with Sircon carrying the CE transcript and approved-course lookup. Sircon is CE only in Maryland - applications and renewals go through NIPR.
Late, and how late, changes the answer. Renew early up to 90 days before expiration. Renew late for up to 1 year from expiration with the CE done, the $69 renewal and the $100 late/reinstatement fee. Expired more than 1 year and the licence cannot be renewed at all - you pass the Maryland exam again and file an initial application. Maryland licences are not perpetual. The full renewal walkthrough is in the [P&C guide](/insurance/maryland/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
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